The Concept and the Criminalization of Instigating Violence in the Legislative Environment Regulating Media Work within the Framework of Digital Platforms and Social Media

Digital media activities in Egypt have flourished greatly over the past two decades which has transformed the audience from a recipient to an actor. The challenges arising from the misuse of digital platforms and social media did not stop at violating the rights of individuals, but extended to threatening the integrity of the state through incitement to violence, suicide, fraud, spreading rumors and hatred, stirring people up and manipulating photos and videos. This happened in parallel with a significant increase in interactions on digital platforms and social media. The legal controls regulating the media in Egypt were unable to deal with this accelerated transformation which led to the emergence of severe practices and abuses that received great criticism, some of which were described as having embodied patterns that instigated writing or saying that encouraged violence.
The study relied on the survey method to survey the laws and legislations that regulate digital media related to the determinants of criminal responsibility for cybercrimes with regard to incitement to violence in Egypt. The researcher used the document analysis tool to analyze the laws and regulations governing digital media in Egypt as well as structured interviews that were applied to Egyptian academics and practitioners in the field of digital media.
The study concluded that laws related to incitement to violence exist. However, the problem is not in drafting laws, but rather in activating and applying them to everyone in the field of digital media. The legal regulation of Internet crimes faces many problems related to determining criminal responsibility and defining the competent judicial authority due to the fluidity of crimes and their globalized specificity. Therefore,  each of those in charge of issuing laws cooperate with the concerned authorities from government institutions and civil society institutions.
The study recommended the need to raise the level of awareness of users of social media so that they do not become perpetrators of crimes or victims of electronic crimes without their knowledge by focusing on the importance of media literacy in schools and universities and working to spread digital education as an approach consistent with technological developments to raise awareness and change behaviors in using social media and reducing problems resulting from discourse inciting violence.